AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Should I be flattered? Because I was mostly confused. Campbell Abbey could have any girl on the planet, so why did he want me?
Which brought me right back around to the cynical part of my brain…the realistic part of my brain…which said, of course he didn’t want me at all. He’d used the opportunity to fuck with me. To throw me off-balance for ignoring him since he’d strolled back into Lubbock. He’d used his celebrity charm and sexy, messy hair and that panty-melting smile to treat me just like every other girl. But it wasn’t going to fucking work.
Fuck. I just wanted to go home.
“Hey, you all right?” Piper asked, dragging me out of my own circle of mental torture.
“Fine,” I lied.
Piper arched an eyebrow. “That was convincing.”
“Can I have the keys? I’m going to bail early.”
“No way!” Piper declared. “We’re celebrating. You can’t go yet.”
She was still seated in her boyfriend’s lap. Hollin wrapped his arm around Piper’s waist and looked up at me.
“Yeah, Blaire, you can’t go. We’re just getting started.” He nodded his head toward the table. “Bombay and lime.”
He winked. It was my go-to drink.
“I just want to go home,” I told her, eyeing the drink.
Piper nudged it toward me. “One drink. If you aren’t having a good time after you finish…you can go.”
I picked up the glass with a devious smile and then downed the entire contents, opening my throat and letting it slide all the way down. Hollin gaped at me as I dropped the glass back onto the table.
“Can you teach her how to do that?” he asked me.
Piper jabbed her elbow into his stomach. “Ass.”
I laughed despite myself. “I have a feeling we’re not talking about drinks anymore.”
“Gag reflexes,” Hollin said.
“Shut up,” Piper said.
It had been a stunt to get the keys, but already, I was feeling better. It was one night. Campbell would be gone in the morning. He’d forget he’d ever asked me out. There was no reason for me to ditch under those circumstances.
“You win.” I took an open seat. “I’ll stay.”
“Excellent,” Hollin said.
“What made you want to run away anyway?” Piper asked. But the smirk on her lips said she knew that something had happened with me and Campbell.
She had been trying to get me to talk about him since he returned. But no one knew what had happened with us, and I’d like to keep it that way if I could at all help it. I didn’t even want to tell my best friend.
“It’s nothing.”
Piper leaned forward. “Because Honey said that Campbell asked you out.”
I glared at her. “If you already knew, then why did you bother asking?”
Hollin choked on his drink. “I must have missed that. My brother did what?”
“He was joking.”
Piper arched an eyebrow. “Was he?”
“Can we not? I’m not going to date Campbell.”
“All right. All right,” Piper said, holding up her hands. “Hollin, you need to make your brother behave. We don’t want him upsetting my friends.”
Hollin grumbled under his breath, “As if anyone could make Campbell do anything.”
Which was so fucking accurate.
The thing that had me worried was that not only could no one tell Campbell what to do, but he was also relentless. And I knew this firsthand. If he wasn’t leaving on the first plane out of Lubbock, I would be worried that he’d take my refusal as a challenge.
“Y’all,” Jennifer said, plopping down into the seat next to me with a huge smile on her face. “Guess what just happened.”
We stared at her expectantly. She didn’t have a ring on her finger, so Julian hadn’t proposed. Though we all assumed it was coming eventually. They had been together for a year and were entirely inseparable. Annie and Jordan had gotten engaged earlier this year, and it felt like another Wright engagement was soon to follow.
“What happened?” I asked.
“Julian asked me to move in with him.”
Piper and I exchanged a look. Jennifer had spent the last year living in Piper’s house. It was so great, having her there, even if we hadn’t actually needed a third roommate. I was going to miss her.
“That’s amazing,” Piper told her.
“Ahhh,” I said, jumping to my feet and throwing my arms around her. “Big step.”
“It is,” she said. Jennifer flushed furiously at the thought. She was the shyest of our group and only really dropped her introversion when she was behind a camera.
“About time,” Hollin said with a laugh. He looked to his girlfriend and winked.
“Don’t get any ideas,” Piper growled at him.
“Wouldn’t dream of it.”
But I knew that was only a matter of time as well. Everyone was so happy. Weddings, engagements, and moving in, oh my!
“I’ll help you find someone to take my room,” Jennifer told us. “I don’t want to leave you hanging.”
“Hey, don’t worry about it,” Piper said.
“Yeah, we managed before.”
“Worrying is my middle name.” Jennifer bit her lip. “Like, I am so worried about the cats. How the hell am I going to move Avocado again?”
